Book Review: Riders of the North Star by Esther A. Albrecht

originality of her ideas, and shows that they had been paralleled
in many sources from many periods, but he presents evidence of
her concepts as personally developed and of the joy she found
in her belief that she was a chosen instrument of God. We are
left with the thought that the inheritance from Fredrika Bremer
was not one of liberation only, but that she had placed on woman
a double burden, that of being man's equal in attainments and
labors and of being the conscience of the world — a burden that he
characterizes as unreasonable.
HENRIETTE C. K . NAESETH
Esther A . Albrecht, RIDERS O F T H E N O R T H STAR. New York:
Carlton Press, Inc., 1970. 210 pages. $4.00.
For the author this must have been a labor of love. She is at
her best in the final chapter where she describes the person and
work of Gustav Andreen with the obvious advantage of an insider.
He was her father, and long-time president of Augustana College,
and there is a ring of authenticity about that chapter which is not
quite equalled in the characterization of some of the other pioneer
figures. Hasselquist comes through as a somewhat autocratic leader
and rigid exemplar of the "faith once delivered to the saints," and
Norelius is not quite to be trusted in church matters because of
his partisan interest in the Minnesota Conference school. Esbjorn
does not play an important part in the story since at the point
where he enters the somewhat tenuous narrative the school is
about to be moved from Chicago to Paxton.
There is a narrative that unfolds around the persons of a pre­sumably
fictitious Nils Stjärnkvist and his visits and assignments
in the service of the Swedish immigrant church in the new world.
We see him in New York meeting the new arrivals, whose stories
we have been told; we see him in Chicago interviewing Esbjorn,
Erland Carlson, and later in conversations with Hasselquist and
Norelius. These contacts provide occasions for recounting some of
their history and experience as leaders in the church and in
education.
The most useful approach to the volume would be to regard it
principally as a set of vignettes, somewhat loosely tied together,
carrying a pioneer flavor as well as a good deal of relevant informa­tion.
The Foreword describes the book as "historical fiction, a story
of a movement, not a history heavily documented." One ought not
fault it, therefore, for its lack of documentation, though it complicates
matters not to know where the history ends and where the imagina­tion
of the author takes over. We ought only hold her to her positive
claim that "the atmosphere concerning the events in this story is
authentic." It is my impression that this is indeed the case.
108
The "atmosphere" includes the sharp tension in the parish in
Dalsland, from which came immigrants whom Stjärnkvist met in New
York, between those who were catching the "America fever" and
those who did not believe the tall tales they were told. There is
fine portrayal of the inner conflict and turmoil of the travellers
to a new world, reaching their uncertain destination, and of the
unscrupulous parasites who took advantage of their ignorance and
from whom the representatives of the church sought to spare them.
Those to whom we are introduced on the four-week trip over the
water are encountered again in various parts of the midwest. We
get glimpses of what the new world has done to them and what they
have accomplished. They were ordinary folk, the sort of whom
Augustana Synod congregations came to be composed. They are the
people to whom those who solicited funds for Augustana College
came, and who sometimes gave what they could ill afford to do
without.
There are some incidents this reviewer did not know about, like
the decision of Geneseo not to try to get Augustana to locate there
in the late eighteen sixties. Someone said, "What did Augustana do
for Paxton?" There is even something about the Illinois Legisla­ture
having already authorized bonds, which the Town Board refused
to issue. (Imagine state support for church-related colleges way
back there.) The dedication ceremonies at Rock Island in 1875 were
impressive, with several thousand persons in attendance. A re­curring
reference, of interest to this reviewer, is the controversy
over "Synod" support for Augustana and "conference" support for
the other schools and colleges related to the church. There were
some bruises from that controversy well into the present century.
This volume is a contribution to the understanding of days that
are receding so fast that they are losing reality for us. For those
who still care about those days this book will be a little like an
old letter from a distant relative. It will help you to remember
who those people were.
EDGAR M . CARLSON
Irene Howard, V A N C O U V E R ' S S V E N S K A R . Occasional Paper Num­ber
One. Vancouver, B.C.: Vancouver Historical Society, 1970. 124 pp.
Miss Howard tells the story of the Swedish immigrant in Van­couver
from 1880 to the present. Her focus is on the individual. In
a pot pourri of sketches she introduces the reader to a variety of
Vancouver Swedes — the newly arrived immigrant; the laborer in
logging, mining, shipping; the organizer and the joiner in the labor
movement; the Swedish journalist; the churchman, the lodgeman,
the promoter of charitable, cultural and social organizations; and
the women who worked with the men and set out on some ventures
109

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originality of her ideas, and shows that they had been paralleled
in many sources from many periods, but he presents evidence of
her concepts as personally developed and of the joy she found
in her belief that she was a chosen instrument of God. We are
left with the thought that the inheritance from Fredrika Bremer
was not one of liberation only, but that she had placed on woman
a double burden, that of being man's equal in attainments and
labors and of being the conscience of the world — a burden that he
characterizes as unreasonable.
HENRIETTE C. K . NAESETH
Esther A . Albrecht, RIDERS O F T H E N O R T H STAR. New York:
Carlton Press, Inc., 1970. 210 pages. $4.00.
For the author this must have been a labor of love. She is at
her best in the final chapter where she describes the person and
work of Gustav Andreen with the obvious advantage of an insider.
He was her father, and long-time president of Augustana College,
and there is a ring of authenticity about that chapter which is not
quite equalled in the characterization of some of the other pioneer
figures. Hasselquist comes through as a somewhat autocratic leader
and rigid exemplar of the "faith once delivered to the saints," and
Norelius is not quite to be trusted in church matters because of
his partisan interest in the Minnesota Conference school. Esbjorn
does not play an important part in the story since at the point
where he enters the somewhat tenuous narrative the school is
about to be moved from Chicago to Paxton.
There is a narrative that unfolds around the persons of a pre­sumably
fictitious Nils Stjärnkvist and his visits and assignments
in the service of the Swedish immigrant church in the new world.
We see him in New York meeting the new arrivals, whose stories
we have been told; we see him in Chicago interviewing Esbjorn,
Erland Carlson, and later in conversations with Hasselquist and
Norelius. These contacts provide occasions for recounting some of
their history and experience as leaders in the church and in
education.
The most useful approach to the volume would be to regard it
principally as a set of vignettes, somewhat loosely tied together,
carrying a pioneer flavor as well as a good deal of relevant informa­tion.
The Foreword describes the book as "historical fiction, a story
of a movement, not a history heavily documented." One ought not
fault it, therefore, for its lack of documentation, though it complicates
matters not to know where the history ends and where the imagina­tion
of the author takes over. We ought only hold her to her positive
claim that "the atmosphere concerning the events in this story is
authentic." It is my impression that this is indeed the case.
108
The "atmosphere" includes the sharp tension in the parish in
Dalsland, from which came immigrants whom Stjärnkvist met in New
York, between those who were catching the "America fever" and
those who did not believe the tall tales they were told. There is
fine portrayal of the inner conflict and turmoil of the travellers
to a new world, reaching their uncertain destination, and of the
unscrupulous parasites who took advantage of their ignorance and
from whom the representatives of the church sought to spare them.
Those to whom we are introduced on the four-week trip over the
water are encountered again in various parts of the midwest. We
get glimpses of what the new world has done to them and what they
have accomplished. They were ordinary folk, the sort of whom
Augustana Synod congregations came to be composed. They are the
people to whom those who solicited funds for Augustana College
came, and who sometimes gave what they could ill afford to do
without.
There are some incidents this reviewer did not know about, like
the decision of Geneseo not to try to get Augustana to locate there
in the late eighteen sixties. Someone said, "What did Augustana do
for Paxton?" There is even something about the Illinois Legisla­ture
having already authorized bonds, which the Town Board refused
to issue. (Imagine state support for church-related colleges way
back there.) The dedication ceremonies at Rock Island in 1875 were
impressive, with several thousand persons in attendance. A re­curring
reference, of interest to this reviewer, is the controversy
over "Synod" support for Augustana and "conference" support for
the other schools and colleges related to the church. There were
some bruises from that controversy well into the present century.
This volume is a contribution to the understanding of days that
are receding so fast that they are losing reality for us. For those
who still care about those days this book will be a little like an
old letter from a distant relative. It will help you to remember
who those people were.
EDGAR M . CARLSON
Irene Howard, V A N C O U V E R ' S S V E N S K A R . Occasional Paper Num­ber
One. Vancouver, B.C.: Vancouver Historical Society, 1970. 124 pp.
Miss Howard tells the story of the Swedish immigrant in Van­couver
from 1880 to the present. Her focus is on the individual. In
a pot pourri of sketches she introduces the reader to a variety of
Vancouver Swedes — the newly arrived immigrant; the laborer in
logging, mining, shipping; the organizer and the joiner in the labor
movement; the Swedish journalist; the churchman, the lodgeman,
the promoter of charitable, cultural and social organizations; and
the women who worked with the men and set out on some ventures
109